W. Tarbotton, Henry Lee, Esq., of Manchester, &c. The income for the year was £2,763, being an increase of £129. The friends of this Society, instead of being disconcerted by the prospect of the disestablishment of the present Protestant Church, resolved as follows: "That, believing that the difficulties of Irish evangelisation have greatly arisen from the State endowment of various religious bodies in that country, and rejoicing in the conviction that the ecclesiastical changes impending, are eminently likely to afford facilities and openings for evangelistic effort heretofore unknown, this meeting would express its earnest desire and hope that the Irish Evangelical Society may be enabled, by the increased liberality of its friends, largely and speedily to add to the number of its agencies in the sister island."

THE HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

A larger attendance than usual marked the Anniversary of this Society, which was held in Finsbury Chapel, on Tuesday evening, May 12th. Mr. Samuel Morley presided, supported by the secretary, Rev. J. H. Wilson, Rev. Dr. Morton Brown, Rev. Newman Hall, Rev. J. Rowland, Rev. Dr. Ferguson, Rev. Dr. Rees, Rev. S. Hebditch, Mr. T. Barnes, M.P., Mr. Josias Alexander, Mr. H. Varley, Mr. Clapham, Rev. Professor M'All, Hackney College, &c. The income of the Society for the year is £7,027; expenditure, £6,431. The following special resolution was adopted with reference to the jubilee of this Society: That, as the Home Missionary Society has now reached its fiftieth year, this meeting gratefully acknowledges the Divine goodness which is seen in the many blessings by which its labours have been attended; and in view of renewed claims to increased effort arising out of new forms of error peculiar to the present time, as well as ever abounding evil, resolves earnestly to appeal for a permanent

income of £10,000 a year as a jubilee offering, that no fewer than a hundred evangelists, besides the ordinary agency of the Society, may be constantly kept in the field."

THE COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Of the Annual Meeting of this Society, held in the Poultry Chapel on Wednesday evening, May 13th, a report will be found in its Quarterly Chronicle in the present number.

THE CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF
EDUCATION.

The Annual Meeting of this Institution was held on Thursday evening, May 14th, in the Congregational Church, Lower Clapton. Mr. Samuel Morley presided, supported by Rev. Dr. Unwin, Mr. C. Jupe, Rev. C. Dukes, Rev. Professor M'All, Rev. J. H. Wilson, Rev. W. Dorling, Rev. J. S. Wardlaw, and others. From the financial statement it appeared that the income for the year was £1,485, and the expenditure, £1,483. Dr. Unwin reported that at a special meeting of the constituents of the Institution on the preceding Thurs day it had been resolved: “That it is expedient that the constitution of the Congregational Board of Education be altered, and that the rejection of aid from public money administered by Government for educational purposes be no longer indispensable to membership, or participation in the benefits of education."

posal that was brought before the country, to modify any proposals that might be made. He was not disposed to join in the great furore that was prevailing just now, as though the country were going back. With regard to compulsory education, there might

be," he said, "compulsion to a reasonable extent, but they should watch lest the principle should be carried too far. He hoped they would be able to come together year by year to watch the progress of events, and to modify measures which might be proposed."

HOME OPERATIONS.

THE Annual Meeting of the Society was held in the Weigh-House Chapel on Wednesday, May 13th. The chair was taken by George Leeman, Esq., M.P. Prayer was offered by the Rev. J. M. Jarvie, after which the chairman spoke as follows:

"We have met to-night to sustain one of those Societies, which it has been the honour of the Congregational body of this country to initiate and to promote. During the present week meetings have been held in connection with the Home Missionary Society and the Irish Evangelical Society, and tomorrow will be the anniversary of the great Institution for Foreign Missions, the London Missionary Society.

"The Colonial Missionary Society was formed in 1836, to promote Evangelical religion, according to the doctrine and discipline of Independent Churches at home, in those colonies to which our fellow subjects have emigrated. It is to this class that the Society directs its efforts. It seeks, not only to stimulate the endeavour of the colonists to sustain their own Churches, but to extend the Gospel to the regions around them. Although this Society presents itself in a very unpretending character, I know of no Society which is more deserving of support. Its income is not larger than that of one of the English Bishops, yet it has been instrumental in planting upwards of 250 Churches in the great cities and centres of colonial life."

"The field of the Society's operations was so vast that he knew of no man who could fully tell the tale, and make a suitable appeal. If they looked for a moment at North America, the sphere of operation there was wider than that district over which flies the Confederate Canadian flag. They had Missionaries there who on one side touched the Atlantic Ocean, and on the other the broad Pacific. They had now granted to the Committee such an extension of their powers as would enable them to follow with active sympathywherever our countrymen have been induced to settle, and this would open up centres in South America, the geography, and the very names of which were, for the most part, unknown to an English audience. This Society had a place and work in Africa; and he knew of no society which could better fill that place, between the priestly ambition of Dr. Gray, and the serious and startling errors of Bishop Colenso. The past

work had been so effectively done, that in Australia they needed no material 'Plymouth Rock' to tell that the puritans had landed there. Was this an enterprise which we must be shamed into supporting? Our very name and spiritual destiny should give a sufficient answer to that inquiry. Nothing was more striking in reading the rise and

history of English Independency, than the manifest union in its great leaders and representatives of those two qualities, a profound spirituality-an almost unearthly holiness—and that habit of mind that looks beyond its own immediate borders, and contemplates every important question, both political and religious, with a depth and breadth of view worthy of Christian statesmen. He believed that when, as a body, inheriting the great name of Independents, they failed to work out great foreign and colonial enterprises such as this, it would require no hand writing on the wall to tell that the kingdom won by the faith and wisdom, sacrifice and prayers of their fathers, had been taken away from them as a heritage too precious for their degenerate sons to guard.

"It was impossible to estimate the work which the Australian Independents had done in leavening society, and sweetening its life with the nobility and chivalry of its political principles.

“Taking a broad view of politics as they affected the morals of the young people, as they will affect for all time the condition, and the moral and political powers of that Anglo-Saxon people, there has been no body in all that land, however large numerically, that has had a tithe of the influence that Independents have exerted. They helped to fight the battle of political freedom, and fought and won the great battle of national education; and the colonists acknowledge their leadership and guidance. Two universities had been established, one in Victoria, and one in New South Wales, to a large extent through the influence of the Independents. In Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Queensland, they would find how religion enters into the whole social life, and manifests the same deep spiritual power and the same generous heart which were met with in England." The Rev. W. S. H. Fielden, in seconding the resolution, said :

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"He had taken an active part in the Melbourne College movement. Six students from that College had already been ordained, and six others were in course of training. At the ordination of one of these, the services wound up with a monster tea meeting. A huge tent had been prepared, capable of holding 800 or 900 persons, but that was insufficient, for literally the entire town shut up shop, and came to the tea meeting. That young minister found it necessary, almost immediately after his settlement, to double his church; and that effort had not cost the Congregational body a penny, for the people honourably supported their own pastor, and paid their way.

"At Ross's Creek, in the district of Ballarat, a former student of the College was now labouring, among a mixed population, which rendered it necessary for him to preach on the Sabbath once in Welsh and once in English. It was not always, however, that matters progressed so prosperously. Another student was labouring in a district, from which more than a third of the entire population suddenly cleared out, and went to New Zealand. The Congregationalists have in Victoria 42 churches, 12 preaching stations, 33 Sunday Schools, and 5,000 sunday scholars. There were, however, still many places where they ought to have ministers. They wanted two or three men with the ability to rough it, to go through the bush preaching to the shepherds and stockmen, and strive to prevent the growth of fearful heathenism; and men to follow the rushes to new gold fields; and they wanted funds to buy sites where land was cheap. There were several important churches destitute of ministers, each one of which would amply sustain a pastor, and be glad to welcome him. In the three great towns, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, there were splendid churches being built, which would cost on an average £15,000 each. The colonies

presented fields for the carrying out of great experiments with a view to their adoption here. From what he saw of its action there he had become a convert to the ballot. The doctrine of Free Churches in a free State' was on its trial. They had heard about 'levelling up,' and this was being tried in Victoria. Land for all religious purposes is given by the Government freely to such bodies as will take it, and larger quantities are given than are requisite for the purpose, so that out of the excess an endowment already of considerable value has arisen. Besides this £50,000 is devoted to religious denominations ; and Episcopalians, Romanists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Jews, and Unitarians now share in it. They would possibly soon have a reductio ad absurdum on that point. There are a great many Chinese in the colony of Victoria, and in one of the suburbs they have recently erected a joss house at a cost of about £4,000, and it was seriously under consideration whether the Celestials should not apply for a portion of the grant. He read some extracts from the Australian Congregational Year Book, embodying the opinion of the Congregational Union there in favour of compulsory secular education; religious instruction being left to the energy and conscience of the Churches. An educational return, compiled by a Roman Catholic registrar, bore testimony to the honourable position occupied by the Independents in an educational point of view, while the registrar declared that the result shown by the Roman Catholic schools was the least satisfactory of any connected with religious denominations. There was in the colonies an absence of that social exclusiveness and caste which was sometimes met with here, and there was to be found there sea room for the noblest ambition."

The Rev. F. Hastings, of St. John's, New Brunswick, supported the resolution, remarking that "The strength of

Congregationalism was in its intelligence and purity. In the colonies he had been struck with the manliness of the men who occupied the pulpits. They were self-denying, earnest, noblehearted men, who felt that they had a work to do, and were doing it. Congregationalism cannot exist where the atmosphere is choked. But for Congregationalism would England have been a Protestant nation? Would America have been the great nation that she is? Would Australia have stretched out her hands to God? Congregationalists were in the vanguard of liberty of thought, and freedom in serving Christ, and he trusted this would ever be the case. This Society sends out men who represent these principles. He hoped that it would send out men who cared more for souls than for self interest; remembering that they belonged to a body of which Milton was a member; of which John Owen was a preacher; of which glorious Cromwell was a member; men who would be the true representatives of those who landed on the Plymouth Rock, and of those whose hearts were found throbbing in the great struggle which resulted in the emancipation of millions of men, and who would speak with burning words and fervent thoughts to numbers who, from that distant land, would swell that great throng which, white-robed and redeemed, will stand before the Lord day and night."

The Rev. J. Jefferis, LL.B., of Adelaide, South Australia, moved the second resolution :—

"For nearly ten years he had laboured in Australia, and during that period he had visited nearly all its chief provinces. The great bulk of the population were the hardy and adventurous sons of Britain; men of foresight and enterprise, who had voyaged 16,000 miles across the ocean that they might better themselves. The state of society in Australia was by no means what Englishmen generally conceived it to be; still the need of the work which was specially undertaken by this Society was undoubtedly very great. Those sad-hearted emigrants who quit this country in the quick clipper ships, are not bands of Christian men, under organised Christian leaders, like those were who of old went westward. They have broken the ties of homes, and there is danger lest they should break also the ties of Christ. Constantly there is need of British organisation to provide for their spiritual weal. He had been asked since he had been home-Australians always call England home-whether, after all, the Australian colonies have not reached the summit of their greatness, and whether the present wave of financial distress was not likely to be the precursor of long years of suffering. From his knowledge of the colonies, he must express his belief that the future of Australia was wonderously great. There was to be found there every element that was likely to contribute to the material prosperity of a nation, and by these means population will be sure to be attracted thither. There were many things which go to form the necessary material gifts which God grants to a great nation. From the Scriptures we have sacred memories about that great country of old, the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey, which God gave as one of the choicest of His material gifts to His chosen people Israel. He did not think there was a single country on the surface of the earth with which the description

given by Moses more exactly tallies than it does with Australia. A land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates ;' a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness;' a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper'-that is South Australia. On behalf of the Churches in Australia he returned thanks to the Society for the help rendered to them in their early struggles, and which had been of the most valuable character, and he trusted that the aid afforded to the Society would be abundantly in creased."

F. Allport, Esq., of Camberwell, in speaking to this resolution, said:— The missions of this Society had been referred to, but if there were no special need he should still like to continue the connection with the colonies, if it was only to show that they had a heart to love and sympathise with them. He should pity the father who, when his son married, did not do something to give him a start in life, if it was only to give him the idea that a father's heart would go with himand a mother's heart too. England was meant to be the patriarch of nations, and when children and grand-children are grown up, England is to be the head of the clan. He liked to send out his Congregationalism; he was proud of it. As to principles, he must either give them up, or carry them out. They should love Congregationalism, because it was the true Apostolical succession. 'The things which thou hast heard before many witnesses,' says Paul, 'the same commit thou to faithful men who are able to teach others also.' That was his tradition.' He liked Congrega

tionalism because it was a social thing. The weakness of Congregationalism was not in want of union, but because individual members do not take a part in the work of the Church. If intelligent members would take their proper position, their Churches would